UK
Wayne Couzens joked about sexual assault in newly released WhatsApp messages with six other police officers
WhatsApp messages in which Wayne Couzens joked about sexual assault with other Metropolitan Police officers before he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard have been revealed for the first time.
The former Metropolitan Police officer is serving a whole life sentence for the murder of Ms Everard, 33, in March 2021.
On Monday, he was sentenced to a further 19 months for three offences of indecent exposure.
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Moments before Couzens exposed himself
Following the sentencing, messages exchanged between Couzens and six other Metropolitan Police officers have been released by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
Warning – the below texts include racist comments and references to sexual assaults
The messages were sent between March 2019 and October 2019 in a WhatsApp group and were investigated by police when Couzens’s phone was seized after he was arrested for Ms Everard’s murder in March 2021.
They show Couzens, 50, and the other officers repeatedly discussing sexually assaulting women, including victims of domestic abuse, while also making racist remarks about areas of London as well as about colleagues.
The investigations resulted in criminal proceedings for two of the officers involved, Joel Borders and Jonathon Cobban, who were jailed for “grossly offensive messages” in November.
The four other serving or former officers also faced gross misconduct proceedings in relation to the messages, resulting in them being barred from policing.
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Everard’s killer gets further sentence
Below are the published messages sent by Couzens:
22 February 2019
Couzens: Messy one, lovely. Remember Forster, it’s got to be consensual!
PC Matthew Forster: They’ve only got to say yes once.
21 March 2019
Messages replying to PC Jonathon Cobban describing his response to an unconscious woman who “drank herself into oblivion”.
Couzens: Did you [perform a sexual act] on her to see if she was ok?
Cobban: I considered it. But she was a right old lump.
Cobban: So I just r**** a bystander instead.
29 June 2019
PC Joel Borders: You know when it’s getting near to the end of night shift in Hounslow because you can hear the call to prayer.
Couzens: You can add Peckham to that list. I was on VCTF [Violent Crime Task Force] the other shift in Peckham, another Somalia village!!!!
21 July 2019
Couzens: Mate they aren’t gonna ditch you with your skill sets, unless you [perform a sexual act] a DV [domestic violence] victim!
Couzens: Oh, Jon in that case you’re probably f*****. [sic]
PC Jonathon Cobban: That’s alright, DV victims love it… that’s why they are repeat victims more than not.
Read more:
Wayne Couzens, Sarah Everard’s killer, sentenced to 19 months for indecent exposure
Two police officers face misconduct cases over handling of indecent exposure reports, IOPC says
Joel Borders and Jonathon Cobban (pictured below) were jailed for ‘grossly offensive’ messages in November
Sky News correspondent Becky Cotterill described the messages as “disgusting”.
“I’ve been looking through some of the messages. Some of them are just disgusting – racist, homophobic, and insulting to people with disabilities,” she said.
She added the remarks are also “insulting to women, to domestic abuse survivors”.
The IOPC did not investigate Couzens over the messages due to the criminal proceedings he was already facing relating to the kidnap, rape and murder of Ms Everard.